METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES THROUGH PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS (PLE) IN STUDENTS OF SPANISH L2

III European Conference on Information Technology in Education and Society:A Critical InsightBarcelona, February 1st – 3rd, 2012

Lola TorresUAB Idiomes

@lolatorres#ties2012

CONTEXT

PERSONAL

Teacher of Spanish as a Second Language (UAB Idiomes)Teacher trainer (UAB, Instituto Cervantes)

PhD researcher (Didáctica Lengua y Literatura, UB)RESEARCH

Motivation: o Practice + Theoryo To introduce Digital Competence in the language classroom from a socio-communicative perspective which

includes learning strategies in digital environments.

Demand: a group of advanced students wanted to continue learning in a digital context.

Answer: course design, practise and research.

“APRENDER A APRENDER": learning Spanish through PLEs

PLE: manage-reflect-awareness of the learning process

CONTEXT. Course and research.

Learning Strategies: thoughts and actions, consciously chosen and used by learners, helping them to perform tasks related to the production of the target language.

Classification (Oxford, 1990) o Cognitiveo Metacognitive: ability to have awareness of their learningo Socialo Affective

Research QuestionWhich Metacognitive Strategies are developed by learners though their PLE?Objective: Classification adapted to the digital/ PLE context

PreliminaryCategorization

Strategies and PLE Theory

Student's PLE analysis (ongoing)

CurrentCategorization

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES THROUGH PLE. Qualitative Process.

Preliminary CATEGORIZATION from the relations between

PLE functions + ecological approach(Van Harmelen, Santamaría)•To establish own objectives •To manage learning: elements and reflection•To communicate with others

Metacognitive Strategies:

•To organize•To monitor•To evaluate

+Socio-affective component

Two educative theories:

•Learning language as a complex system (Larsen-Freeman)•Connectivism (Siemens)

Characteristics of digital learning and the cultural context:•values: proactive participation •abundance and transmission of information•need of constant updates

Introduction of Digital Competence in language teaching:

•What•How•Why

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES THROUGH PLE. Influences on preliminary categorization.

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES THROUGH PLE. Current categorization.

1. TO CONNECT2. TO UPDATE3. TO ORDER

MANAGEMENTthoughts and actions, consciously chosen and used by the learners to search, to choose and to order learning elements:•People•Places•Reflections

4.TO IDENTIFY OBJECTIVES5.TO IDENTYFY ACHIEVEMENTS6.TO IDENTIFY DIFFICULTIES

SELF-ASSESSMENTthoughts and actions, consciously chosen and used by learners, where the student observes, locates and defines himself in his learning process: what has been learned, how he has done it and what he wants to learn.

PreliminaryCategorization

Strategies and PLE Theory

Student's PLE analysis (ongoing)

CurrentCategorization

Learner’s ability to•relate different sources of learning: formal and non formal; directly or indirectly related to the course•establish personal relationships and feed them (PLN): continue communication through comments, links, references•connect learning with personal and professional interests•connect individual learning with collective learning

1. TO CONNECT – Management

Learner’s ability to•edit his learning spaces by adding or changing elements. These spaces include: individual and personal (blog, Twitter, his profiles), or collaborative spaces (wiki, Google Docs). The elements can be:

o main elements of his digital identity, appearance, activity, profileso content, i.e. completing taskso contacts (PLN)

•stay informed of changes. RSS•reflect on his learning and reporting on his updates and changes: in a personal or in a collaborative space and they can refer to an update on individual learning or an update on collective learning.

2. TO UPDATE – Management

GReader me permite ver las actualizaciones de todas las webs que me interesan en español: los blogs de mis compañeras y de mi profesora, los blogs que leo de cocina, noticias, cuando alguien añade información nueva en los espacios de clase

Learner’s ability to•organize the layout or design of the PLE: centralized, distributed, etc. •order the different elements of the PLE: in the blog elements, Google Reader, I Google, etc.•use elements that allow him to manage the information that he writes or reads: categories, tags, hashtags, links, lists

3. TO ORDER – Management

He aprendido a ordenar todo en mi Google Reader, por fin porque ahora tengo mucha información y todos los días hay cosas nuevas. Como así es más fácil.

Learner’s ability to•express explicitly general Spanish learning objectives or the specific objectives of a task•connect individual objectives and collective objectives: collaborative course program/contents•explicit reflection on how he learns and how to reach these objectives taking into account what the learner knows and what he wants

4. TO IDENTIFY OBJECTIVES – Self-assessment

Learner’s ability to•reflect on his achievements (a specific task or the on-going course): in the learning blog/diary•relate his own achievements or learning needs with other’s achievements: reading and participating in other learners’ blogs•compare his learning in the past and present

5. TO IDENTIFY ACHIEVEMENTS – Self-assessment

Learner’s ability to•identify a learning difficulty

o related to the information he works with to learn or practice the target languageo related to the accomplishment of a specific tasko related to his overall learning o reflect dificulties with solutions and achievements

6. TO IDENTIFY DIFFICULTIES – Self-assessment

me gusta ver qué escriben en sus blogs o en el wiki o en el diccionario de clase. Cuando en mi Google reader leo sus nuevos posts en sus blogs o sus favoritos en G reader, yo también sé que tengo que escribir, porque mis compañeras y ahora algunos followers en twitter también leen que escribo yo, y es importante escribir bien e interesante...si lo leen es como una parte de mi presentación, y si quiero encontrar trabajo en Cataluña, creo que es bueno y quiero estar correcto.

CONCLUSIONS (beta)

Metacognitive Strategies through PLE

• Transversal strategies (between Communicative and Digital Competences)• Digital identity development as a learner + reflection • Specific digital and cultural features: proactive, changing context, many options to

choose from• Personal learning + learning with others (network learning)

1. TO CONNECT2. TO UPDATE3. TO ORDER

MANAGEMENT

4.TO IDENTIFY OBJECTIVES5.TO IDENTYFY ACHIEVEMENTS6.TO IDENTIFY DIFFICULTIES

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Thank youlolatorresrios@gmail.comtwitter.com/lolatorresnodosele.com

Images from:uncheamericanofenbarcelona.blogspot.comemmyenbarcelona.blogspot.comeldiariodeyu.blogspot.com